April 10, 2011
I absolutely love going to Sandy Point. All experiential learning, very few "take notes" kind of moments here. Instead, I have students take pictures and write a one page reflection on what they liked most, learned about, etc. Below are a few pictures.
April 8, 2011
Teaching a sense of place is so important to kids today. I have children in my Marine Biology class who did know anything about Sandy Point, even that it existed! This is a place my mother took me to as a child since the age of 4. I've had my toes in that sand for a very long time. Nowadays, I use Sandy Point as one of my landmarks to navigate home when running the boat from the tower. There's a compass up there, but that's it. So Sandy Point, the wind turbine, a few water towers and a tree on Salisbury beach bring me home each day.
Local knowledge blended into curriculum and standards solidifies concepts and ideas in the minds of students and makes it more important, because it makes that connection that lacking in today's schools. When considering taking students out into the field, often a teacher's instinct is to go abroad and hire "experts."
Instead, staying close to home and creating learning opportunities in familiar places allows for a more meaningful experience, because children see a familiar place with new eyes. Most kids, when brought someplace new, experience sensory overload and are overstimulated by the newness of the area. They loose out on half of the intended educational/lesson content because a stranger is teaching them in a strange place.
Going someplace familiar, with their teacher they have known the whole year who can carry the cadence of the classroom out into the field, opens their mind to seeing the familiar place through new eyes. They feel safe and are then able to process the new educational content. Equally as important, they can also bring their prior experiences of this place to the table, and that empowers the student to become part of a shared learning experience that is so much for meaningful, valuable, and often, far more economical than hiring experts and traveling far abroad. Everything we strive to teach can be taught right here at home within just a few miles of our schools.
April 2, 2011
Greetings, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather today. I am looking forward to exploring the shores of the Merrimack River and the seven principles of ocean literacy. For graduate credit, Salem requires a certain number of contact hours. This course is only 3 days long, so there is an online component to this course to satisfy the contact hours. I have set up a wiki page for each of you where you will be writing your journal reflections and uploading photos, lesson plans, etc. Before April 8, could you please put a picture of yourself on your page. For all of your uploads, please start the title of each file with your initials. Secondly, please write a brief description of yourself and how you are connected to the ocean. Any problems, please email me directly at robyeomans8@gmail.com. In the subject line, please put "ocean inquiry 2011."
I have had my toes in the Atlantic Ocean on Plum Island since I was 2 years old. My life has two seasons, not four-- summer or winter. During the summer, I spend time on the Erica Lee taking passengers out to fish, explore and experience the Gulf of Maine. My wife and I had our first date aboard her in 1989 and now watch our two boys scamper over her decks. Winters are spent at Newburyport High School teaching the importance of marine environmental to my Biology, Anatomy and Marine Biology classes. I undertake research opportunities where ever possible to enhance my teaching. In 2009, I was lucky enough to fish for invasive humboldt squid in Monterey, California, with Stanford Professor Dr. William Gilly. In January 2011, I participated in SEA Semester's Colleague Voyage and conducted oceanographic research aboard Woods Hole's SSV Robert Seamans off the coast of Tahiti.
I absolutely love going to Sandy Point. All experiential learning, very few "take notes" kind of moments here. Instead, I have students take pictures and write a one page reflection on what they liked most, learned about, etc. Below are a few pictures.
April 8, 2011
Teaching a sense of place is so important to kids today. I have children in my Marine Biology class who did know anything about Sandy Point, even that it existed! This is a place my mother took me to as a child since the age of 4. I've had my toes in that sand for a very long time. Nowadays, I use Sandy Point as one of my landmarks to navigate home when running the boat from the tower. There's a compass up there, but that's it. So Sandy Point, the wind turbine, a few water towers and a tree on Salisbury beach bring me home each day.
Local knowledge blended into curriculum and standards solidifies concepts and ideas in the minds of students and makes it more important, because it makes that connection that lacking in today's schools. When considering taking students out into the field, often a teacher's instinct is to go abroad and hire "experts."
Instead, staying close to home and creating learning opportunities in familiar places allows for a more meaningful experience, because children see a familiar place with new eyes. Most kids, when brought someplace new, experience sensory overload and are overstimulated by the newness of the area. They loose out on half of the intended educational/lesson content because a stranger is teaching them in a strange place.
Going someplace familiar, with their teacher they have known the whole year who can carry the cadence of the classroom out into the field, opens their mind to seeing the familiar place through new eyes. They feel safe and are then able to process the new educational content. Equally as important, they can also bring their prior experiences of this place to the table, and that empowers the student to become part of a shared learning experience that is so much for meaningful, valuable, and often, far more economical than hiring experts and traveling far abroad. Everything we strive to teach can be taught right here at home within just a few miles of our schools.
April 2, 2011
Greetings, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather today. I am looking forward to exploring the shores of the Merrimack River and the seven principles of ocean literacy. For graduate credit, Salem requires a certain number of contact hours. This course is only 3 days long, so there is an online component to this course to satisfy the contact hours. I have set up a wiki page for each of you where you will be writing your journal reflections and uploading photos, lesson plans, etc. Before April 8, could you please put a picture of yourself on your page. For all of your uploads, please start the title of each file with your initials. Secondly, please write a brief description of yourself and how you are connected to the ocean. Any problems, please email me directly at robyeomans8@gmail.com. In the subject line, please put "ocean inquiry 2011."
I have had my toes in the Atlantic Ocean on Plum Island since I was 2 years old. My life has two seasons, not four-- summer or winter. During the summer, I spend time on the Erica Lee taking passengers out to fish, explore and experience the Gulf of Maine. My wife and I had our first date aboard her in 1989 and now watch our two boys scamper over her decks. Winters are spent at Newburyport High School teaching the importance of marine environmental to my Biology, Anatomy and Marine Biology classes. I undertake research opportunities where ever possible to enhance my teaching. In 2009, I was lucky enough to fish for invasive humboldt squid in Monterey, California, with Stanford Professor Dr. William Gilly. In January 2011, I participated in SEA Semester's Colleague Voyage and conducted oceanographic research aboard Woods Hole's SSV Robert Seamans off the coast of Tahiti.